Pieces of a dragon puzzle Chapter 4 Part 2
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3
Part 1
Saturday morning had everyone at the kitchen table, except Kurt. Blaine looked pale and tired but Finn was looking healthy again. By noon, Burt had had enough of his son’s behavior and dragged him from his room.
Kurt looked better, but stiffened when he sat next to Blaine. He didn’t spare a glance at his former dragon, or acknowledge Blaine in any way. Carole hoped it was just because of the school problems.
Blaine, on the other hand, positively bloomed when Kurt entered the room. His sullen, pale gaze transformed into something Carole could only call heart-shaped eyes. The boy was so obviously enamored with Kurt; if only Kurt could see how lucky was to have found such a kind and gorgeous boy.
Blaine’s heart raced as Kurt sat next to him. Maybe, just maybe, everything would be normal again. He kept his hopeful gaze on Kurt, but wasn't graced with a glance, a smile or a even quick scratch of his head. Even when Kurt was in a foul mood he would spare just a moment to give Blaine these small things, but today... nothing. Blaine knew that he couldn’t help Kurt with Karofsky and that it wasn’t his secret to tell, but Kurt wouldn’t abandon Blaine because of this, would he?
Blaine waited a few minutes, but Kurt only stared at the TV. Blaine swallowed, reposititioned his wings a bit, before he slowly leaned against Kurt, putting up his arms to hug him. Kurt immediately shot up from the couch saying he’d start lunch. Not only was Blaine’s attempt at contact ignored, but it seemed unwanted. Something cracked inside of Blaine.
Kurt stayed in the kitchen for the rest of the day, first preparing lunch and then dinner, dodging all offers of help, and even starting to bake a pie and a plate of cookies, much to Finn’s delight. Blaine observed Kurt the whole day, hoping for at least one glance in his direction, but he was disappointed. He hadn’t had the courage to accompany Kurt to the kitchen, fearing he’d flee back into his room again. Burt and Carole silently kept watch, too.
Sunday morning found Burt unable to sleep and heading down to the kitchen a little before sunrise. He almost tumbled down the stairs as he tripped over something on the floor, but caught himself just in time. He looked down, expecting to see some shoe of Finn’s lying around, but was flabbergasted when he saw Blaine, sleeping, curled up on the floor in front of Kurt’s door.
He sighed as he bent down and nudged Blaine to wake him up. The momentarily hopeful sleepy look he got squeezed his heart, before the hope in his eyes dissolved into disappointment at seeing only Burt. Burt disapproved of Kurt’s current behavior strongly, but if Carole was right, they’d have to wait one more day to get to the bottom of it. But he still pitied the poor dragon. It wasn’t fair.
“Morning…” Blaine mumbled before he looked at Kurt’s door.
Burt sighed. “C’mon buddy, get up. We’re gonna go downstairs and make us an unhealthy breakfast of bacon and pancakes. And then you’re gonna help me with my car in the garage. You’ll have to learn to do something now that you’re human and it’s not gonna help anyone, if you just hang around the house all day watching TV. Come on, up!”
Blaine spent almost all Sunday with Burt in the garage connected to the house. He was pretty sure Burt had only wanted to keep him from sulking, and as good as the idea might have seemed, it wasn't exactly successful. Blaine's life so far had only consisted of waiting for Kurt and being with Kurt, he didn’t know what else to do with himself. Now, with Kurt treating him like he didn’t even exist, he felt completely lost.
At the end of the day they both concluded that Blaine and cars weren’t a good combination. He had gotten all the tools mixed up, handed the wrong ones constantly, even after Burt had tried to explain the differences. He hadn’t really understood and to make matters worse, his wings kept getting in the way, so by the end of the day they were completely dirty.
Showering proved to be a difficult task, especially when Blaine tried to scrub his wings; his arms either weren’t flexible enough or the shower stall too small. In the end, he still had some grease left in places he couldn’t reach. Carole had eyed them with a disapproving look, before Blaine had admitted the inconvenience. She had offered to clean them for him, but Blaine had refused. He didn’t like people touching his wings; it felt strange.
Kurt ignored all of them on Sunday, staying locked up in his room, only coming out to eat and drink. He had gotten paler as the day progressed, but no one had commented. Every member of the household waited for Monday, mostly with hope, but in Kurt’s case, fear.
The school bell rang as students passed Finn in the hallway. He hid (or tried to) behind his locker, shadowing Kurt. So far his stepbrother had been extremely fidgety at every slam of a locker and he had visibly flinched every time a jock had passed him, but nothing had happened to explained Kurt’s odd behavior.
Kurt looked healthy enough, he was still pale but not as pale as he had been the whole weekend. If Finn hadn’t caught him applying make up to his face and neck, Finn wouldn’t have suspected a thing.
The hallway was almost completely empty as the next lesson began, and Kurt had just rounded a corner on his way to French Class when Karofsky passed by. Neither noticed Finn, but the look Karofsky shot Kurt… Finn's eyes widened. He might not be the brightest bulb but there was some serious anger there.
Kurt gasped and pressed himself against the wall, eyes tightly closed. That may have been the normal reaction of every glee kid when jocks came at them, but there wasn't a slushie in sight. With Karofsky’s and Kurt's reaction, Finn couldn't help but feel that this wasn't just bullying the gleek, but something far more personal.
A bump sounded and Karofsky’s head whipped to Finn. Finn saw his stepbrother retreat down the hall and Karofsky raised a hand in greeting at Finn before walking in the opposite direction. Finn cursed his clumsiness and the locker door in front of him.
Finn's breakthrough came after school when he was walking to the choir room, already late, because he had lost sight of Kurt four minutes earlier. He just hoped Kurt was already at Glee.
He skidded to a halt when he heard hushed voices and saw the shadows of two figures in the otherwise deserted hallway to his left. Finn gazed around the corner and his stomach dropped. Kurt, obviously scared, was being held against the wall by Karofsky.
“Listen, you little faggot! Fuckin’ Frankenteen looked at me real funny today, I swear if you have told ANYONE, you're dead. I fuckin’ swear it! Do you need a reminder? I’m not gonna beat you up the next time, I meant it, I’ll kill you.”
Karofsky’s hissed words filtered through the hallway and Finn could hear Kurt’s whimpered reply “No, no, please, I didn’t tell anyone, I didn’t. Please, let me go, please…”
“HEY!” Finn shouted and stepped around the corner. “Leave my brother alone!”
Karofsky instantly dropped Kurt, looked at Finn and ran in the other direction. Kurt slumped to the floor and Finn ran to him.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Jeez, Kurt, you alright, man?”
Kurt’s body trembled as he stared at the ground, but nodded slowly.
Finn heard himself rambling.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone? Kurt, Karofsky means it, he wants to kill you. Oh my god, we have to tell your Dad.”
Kurt grasped in Finn’s arms.
“No, no” he whispered, “He can’t know, he's still sick, he’ll have another heart attack!”
“That’s bullshit, we need to do something.”
Kurt sniffed. “And what, pray tell? You know that Figgins won’t believe me and he'll just downplay anything I accuse Karofsky of. And even if you testify, that will get him suspended a few weeks at most, and then he’ll be back.”
This realization sinking in, Kurt started crying and Finn felt helpless. What was he supposed to do? Kurt was right, even the involvement of their parents wouldn’t help, Figgins would just tell them “kids are kids, they don’t mean it.”
That's when Finn decided to take matters into his own hands.
....tbc